Maxwell's great friend Raef Payne observed that Maxwell would have liked you. What do you think he meant by that? I saw the movie “Ring of Bright Water” when I was a kid. (No, I am NOT saying how long ago that was.) I enjoyed it – after all, what kid wouldn't like a story about a playful otter! But, I didn't love it – probably because of the ending.

Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water remains one of the most enthralling and surprising books I’ve ever read and I am sure, if I was to read it again in another twenty years or so, I would find yet more significance in his words. It’s a timeless and wonderful testament to the beauty and power of nature. In the post-Savile era, an air of unease hangs over aspects of Maxwell’s life; while in Sandaig he hired two adolescent assistants – Terry Nutkins (who went on to become a well-known TV naturalist) and Jimmy Watt – to help look after the otters. Both under-age, they moved into his home and he became Nutkins’ legal guardian. It was a set-up discomfiting to modern sensibilities, though no allegations have ever been made against Maxwell and those who knew him best believe his desire to be around young boys was merely a product of his stunted emotional development. There is a degree of public ambivalence towards Maxwell’s “conservation” work too. Looked at from a 21st century perspective, his attitude towards animals is distinctly dubious. As a member of the landed gentry, he learned to hunt at an early age; one of his many failed ventures was a fishery for basking sharks; and, far from encouraging the otters to live wild, he anthropomorphised them, giving them their own rooms and feeding them eels shipped in from London. a b Field, Marcus (13 July 2014). "Gavin Maxwell's Bitter legacy". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2 December 2014 . Retrieved 18 November 2014.

Gavin Maxwell was a Scottish naturalist and author, best known for his work with otters. He was born in Scotland in 1914 to Lieutenant-Colonel Aymer Maxwell and Lady Mary Percy, whose father was the seventh Duke of Northumberland. He was raised in the small village of Elrig, near Port William, which he later described in his autobiography The House of Elrig (1965). Gavin Maxwell died seven months after I was born. In a parallel universe, I think I would have liked to have sat with a newspaper and a pint at a table in a pub somewhere. Maxwell would be sitting nearby, within earshot, relaxed and happy in the company of some of his less posh friends. I’d be able to listen to what they were gassing on about, and try to get the measure of the man. Then I would step to the bar, buy a whisky (maybe a double) and take it across to Maxwell’s table and place it before him and say, “Thank you, sir. Thank you for writing so well, and for weaving such wonderful stories.” Then I’d nod my head at him and walk out the door into the rain. Award Winners". National Board of Review. New York City. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013 . Retrieved 24 June 2014. One episode involves Graham trying to find live eels for Mij, which is very difficult because during the winter the eels swim in deeper waters, making it tough to fish them out. Also, no fish place in town carries live eels. Austerity Britain has nothing on the austerity, drabness and general greyness of post-war Britain. We, along with our allies (especially the USA), may have won the war, but it was bad in Britain – always raining in the bombed-out city centres, where drudges dressed in demob suits trudged through puddles to and from their bedbug-infested tenements along broken pavements to work at tedious, meaningless office jobs for 18 hours a day (if we are to believe the social history writers and/or George Orwell).

In my opinion, this single statement is one of the most remarkable in the entire book. To know and realise that there is something awry with the way plants function (Of an ecosystem). A subset of ecosystem processes and structures, where the ecosystem does something that provides an ecosystem service of value to people. in ecosystems reveals more to me about Maxwell’s genius than almost anyone I have ever read. And it sets, for me, a context for his love of wildlife – including his companion otters – and everything that unfolds in his book from thereon. Early in May comes the recurrent miracle of the elvers’ migration from the sea. There is something deeply awe-inspiring about the sight of any living creatures in incomputable numbers; it stirs, perhaps, some atavistic chord whose note belongs more properly to the distant days when we were a true part of the animal ecology’ Two Wisconsin otters owned and trained by Tom and Mabel Beecham of Phillips, Wisconsin [4] portrayed Mij the otter. It’s not some adventure story, not such a battle of wills as, for instance, H is for Hawk chronicles. Mostly, it’s worth reading for that delight in nature, described with love and attention to detail. If you’re not interested in autobiography and nature writing, it’s probably not for you. The film was released as a region 2 DVD in 2002, [10] and as a region 1 DVD in 2004. [11] Previously, it had been released as a VHS tape in 1981 and 1991. [12] [13] See also [ edit ]When Maxwell confided that ‘he could not love me with erotic desire’ [4] –male homosexuality being punishable in 1950s Britain by prison or chemical castration–Raine resolved that their relationship could still survive in a spiritual, Platonic sphere. Her indefatigable support for his writing is clear. Her literary connections were vital in the early years of his career. Most notably, he was first published by New Statesman literary editor Janet Adam Smith, Raine’s dear friend and godmother to her daughter Anna. In reciprocation of sorts, Maxwell shared with Raine his remote Highland cottage Sandaig: a primordial, almost mystical spot nestled between sea, shore and sky, encircled by a silvery burn and with a rowan tree outside the door. Raine stayed at Sandaig frequently and found the landscape a source of profound inspiration, encapsulated by her 1952 Arts Council Poetry Prize-winning collection The Year One. Determined to demonstrate her commitment to Maxwell and their unconventional bond, Raine also took care of his pet otter Mij: their ‘waterbaby’ through whom it seemed ‘Gavin and I were united … in him I loved Gavin; in his love, a part of Gavin loved me, and Gavin through him accepted a part of my love’. [5] ‘We met at last in the heart of an otter,’ Maxwell inscribed Raine’s copy of his first book, Harpoon at a Venture.